Under new a new law adopted in the UK, the British police are now permitted to access data stored on home computers without benefit of a search warrant. Worse yet, officers are allowed to hack into computers remotely without notifying its owner. Even though officials say these methods would only be used in extreme circumstances, civil rights groups are understandably agitated. According to the Times Online, "Under the Brussels edict, police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private...

Reports just in suggest that a couple of manufacturers are about to launch televisions with the capacity to view films immediately built in. At least that's what the confusingly-worded news report I picked up said (unusual for Reuters to confuse us in this way). What it means is that TVs will start to have video on demand software embedded into them. To which I can only reply, oh great. Ter-riffic. Last month I blogged about 3D TV and how the Murdoch empire wants to deliver it as soon as possible. Meanwhile the recession means end customers are having ordinary high-def TVs pushed at them in...

Sophos, the security outfit, has issued a warning for users of Twitter to be on the lookout for an evolving phishing attack which could steal personal data if they are not very careful. Already thousands of Twitterers are thought to have received messages from their friends which invite them to visit a specific website for a number of various reasons. Amongst them, it seems, is Stephen Fry. According to reports the bait used in the messages can be anything from the lure of winning an Apple iPhone through to promises of funny pictures or blog articles supposedly about the recipient of the...

Martin Sosnoff, writing in Forbes.com today, offers one of the most comprehensive, clear-minded takes on the U.S. economy in 2009. He’s not bullish on tech stocks – yet – but he is cheerleading the biotechnology sector, which could offer investors some significant upside in a year where profits will come at a premium. Here’s his capsule review of key economic indicators for this year: “At year end, the consensus for the economy and financial markets riffled into conformity. It is a mixed bag, both bullish and bearish, which means its value is probably zero. Bearish on the first...

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first, and it starts with the semiconductor sector. Last month I wrote how the market for consumer electronics was one of the first to go as consumers buckled down as the recession hit home. That has set the semiconductor market in a downward spiral and now the evidence is cropping up that the headache won’t be going away anytime soon. First, a host of analysts have come out in the past month with downward projections for the entire semiconductor industry. Tristan Gerra, the chip analyst at Robert W. Baird is particularly bearish, downgrading chip...

I write a great deal about Google mostly because it is always trying new things and putting them out there for free for the world to try. The tools are easy to access and use from wherever you are--any device with a browser and an internet connection--and you can't beat the single-sign on across the tool kit, but for all it has going for it, Google has a major trust issue. Every time I write about Google the comments always include people who won't trust Google with their content ever. Just last Fall, in fact, Richard Stallman suggested that cloud computing in general was to him a stupid...

Remember the Idaho elected official a few weeks back who got in trouble for forwarding a message, comparing Michelle Obama to a black widow spider, to 26 people from his official email account? It gets better. The Kuna-Melba News, a weekly paper that covers western Ada County and eastern Canyon County, is reporting that Canyon County has refused a Freedom of Information request for the messages Canyon County Commissioner Steve Rule sent out from his county email account on Dec. 2, comparing First Lady-elect Michelle Obama to a black widow spider. “I understand from Commissioner Rule that...

If you thought that gaming was all about next generation technology, HD graphics or innovative input systems think again. If the results of a survey into console usage in the US during 2008 is anything to go by, it would appear that gameplay is still in charge. The Nielsen research shows that more people were playing with their old PlayStation 2 that their new PlayStation 3. Heck, it showed that more people were playing with that PS2, in terms of the number of minutes spent using a console throughout the year, than the Nintendo Wii or the Xbox 360. Rather interestingly, I thought, was the...

Linux will continue its soaring success in 2009. Yes, Linux is free and free is good but what about its other advantages over commercial Unix flavors and Windows? Here are the top seven reasons why Linux will continue to smash the competition in the face of the economy, the Cloud, and the smart administrator. 1. Frugality - In the Data Center or on the Desktop, Linux is a frugal choice for those who need to save space, money, and time. If you care about getting the most out of your current hardware, you need to take a very close look at Linux which still runs comfortably on standard Pentium...

According to the latest figures just published by Net Applications, a specialist Internet measurement company, Apple has seen Mac OS X grab a record gain taking it dangerously close to a 10 percent market share for the first time since the company started tracking OS usage. In stark contrast, however, Microsoft saw a drop in the market share reported for the second month running, close to a full percentage point in fact. Indeed, the Net Applications numbers have it at an all time low now. Linux, meanwhile, continues to go nowhere fast. It seems to have somewhat stagnated in a distant third...

An interesting report from the BBC this morning suggests that smartphone sales will decline worldwide except in developing nations over the coming 12 months. Well, duh. It's been known for a while at least in the UK that there are now actually more handsets than there are people. And as the functions on those handsets become more sophisticated yes, there will be many more people happy with what they've got. Be honest - how many of the functions on your phone do you actually use? So sales will come down. That matters less in the UK than elsewhere because we have this system of subsidised...

Instant karma's gonna get you Gonna knock you right on the head ~John Lennon. It's 2009 and I'm sure the powers that be at Microsoft are hoping it's going to be a good one without any tears, but even as the old year closed, the news kept getting worse for the software giant. Just yesterday the web surged with news that 30 GB Zunes were freezing up, apparently the victim of a Y2K-type clock bug where the Zunes rebooted and froze as of January 1, 2009 Pacific Time. And this morning, Ars Technica reports that rumors are flying about a massive layoff on January 15 involving 17 percent of the...

In the USA, according to the Digital World Digital Life study, housewives spend around 38 percent of their spare time on the Internet. Bored British housewives, however, spend a whopping great 47 percent of their leisure time online. That is more time online, by the way, than students (39 percent) and the unemployed (33 percent.) So what are they all doing? Apparently, the answer would seem to be a little stereotypical: shopping. Which is good news for the online economy, with Brits accounting for something in the region of a billion pounds spent per month. In general though, across all...

A number of localities have tried to recreate the magic that resulted in locations such as Silicon Valley in California and Route 128 in Massachusetts. Now it's Idaho's turn. More than 100 Idaho business executives and politicians want to turn some 79,000 acres of land in Idaho, about 20 miles northwest of Boise, into the Eagle-Star High-Tech Corridor, named after the two cities involved. Part of what made Silicon Valley successful is that it became known as a "cluster" -- companies in the same industry or otherwise linked through customer, supplier, or similar relationships, representing...